Chapter 12 - Why Laura Looked Relieved)
That night nobody slept.
The house felt unfamiliar without Rick.
Every sound seemed suspicious.
A pipe clicked.
Noah sat upright.
A car passed.
Laura looked toward the window.
Emily kept expecting the back door to open.
Richard remained downstairs.
At three in the morning Emily found him sitting at the kitchen table beside James's photograph.
"Can't sleep?"
Richard smiled faintly.
"Apparently it's hereditary."
Emily sat across from him.
She studied his face.
There were pieces of Laura in it.
The eyes.
The way he pressed his lips together when thinking.
"You really thought Mom didn't want you?"
"Yes."
"For eight years?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you keep trying?"
Richard looked ashamed.
"I did for two years."
"And then?"
"Your mother appeared before a judge and stated she wanted no contact with me."
Emily frowned.
"Rick forced her?"
"Not physically."
Laura's voice came from the doorway.
She entered the kitchen.
"He convinced me Dad wanted the trust."
Richard looked down.
Laura continued.
"Rick showed me emails. Court documents. Letters."
"Forged," Richard said.
"I know."
Laura sat beside Emily.
"I was grieving. I believed the person who was standing beside me."
Emily hesitated.
Then asked the question that had been bothering her since the kitchen fight.
"When Rick came at Noah, why didn't you move?"
Laura closed her eyes.
Emily continued.
"You just stood there."
"I know."
"And you looked relieved."
Richard glanced at Laura.
Laura nodded.
"I was."
Emily felt anger rise again.
Laura quickly continued.
"Not because Rick was hurting Noah."
"Then why?"
Laura reached into her pocket.
She placed a small black receiver on the table.
"The porch sensor."
Emily recognized it.
Laura explained.
"Richard told me his car would stop at the corner. When he reached the porch, the sensor would blink twice."
Emily remembered Laura standing in the doorway.
"When I saw that light," Laura said, "I knew help was three seconds away."
"You still froze."
Laura nodded.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because freezing became the way I survived Rick."
Emily looked away.
Laura's voice cracked.
"I wish I could give you a better answer."
"You should have protected Noah."
"I should have."
"You should have protected me."
"Yes."
Emily looked at her.
Laura did not defend herself.
That mattered.
For years every difficult conversation with Rick ended with an explanation of why he was right.
Laura offered none.
"I failed both of you," she said. "Sometimes because I was afraid. Sometimes because I believed lies I wanted to believe. Sometimes because admitting the truth would have meant admitting how dangerous our home had become."
Emily's eyes filled with tears.
Laura continued.
"I can't change that."
"No."
"But I can stop asking you to pretend it didn't happen."
Emily wiped her face.
"Are you going back to him?"
"No."
"You swear?"
Laura looked at Noah's crayons scattered across the table.
"On everything I have left."
Richard pushed James's photograph toward Emily.
"Your father used to say your mother was stubborn enough to survive the end of the world."
Laura laughed through tears.
"He said that?"
"Repeatedly."
The three of them sat quietly.
Then Richard looked at Emily.
"There's something else you should know."
Emily groaned.
"Can this family have one conversation without another secret?"
Richard almost smiled.
"Apparently not."
He removed a document from his folder.
"James's trust was worth considerably more than Dawson knew."
"How much?"
"At the time of James's death, approximately four million dollars."
Laura stared.
Richard continued.
"The company shares appreciated. Even after the stolen funds, the protected portion is currently valued near seven million."
Emily did not know how to react.
She had worried about grocery bills.
Noah wore shoes until the soles split.
Rick frequently told them the family was lucky he paid for everything.
Seven million dollars felt less real than the broken glasses still lying in the trash.
"I don't care," Emily said.
Richard nodded.
"Good."
She frowned.
"Good?"
"Money doesn't repair a childhood."
He looked at Laura.
"But it can buy distance from people who use dependence as a weapon."
Laura took a long breath.
"What happens now?"
"Tomorrow we begin reconstructing the accounts."
"And Rick?"
Richard's expression changed.
"Rick's future will depend on evidence."
Rebecca appeared in the hallway.
She had been sleeping on the sofa.
"I have more."
Everyone turned.
Rebecca held a thin folder.
"I didn't tell you everything."
Laura closed her eyes.
"Of course you didn't."
Rebecca placed the folder on the table.
Inside were photographs.
Rick meeting with Calvin Moore.
Bank receipts.
Vehicle records.
And one photograph taken outside the Carter house only two months after James died.
Rick was standing beside Rebecca.
They were exchanging an envelope.
Emily looked at her aunt.
"What was in it?"
Rebecca's face tightened.
"Money."
"For what?"
Rebecca looked at Laura.
"To disappear."
The room went quiet.
Laura whispered, "You let me think you were dead for money?"
Rebecca nodded.
"At first."
"At first?"
Rebecca's eyes filled with tears.
"Then I stayed gone because I was ashamed."
Laura stood and walked away.
Rebecca did not follow.
Emily stared at the photograph.
Every adult in her life had made choices before she was old enough to understand them.
The children had simply inherited the consequences.
She looked at Richard.
"How do we stop secrets from doing this again?"
May you like
Richard answered quietly.
"By telling the truth before it becomes convenient."
